Winning gold is the only task for Russia at European Team Chess Championship — RCF chief

MOSCOW, August 19. /TASS/. The main task of the Russian male and female chess players at the 2019 European Team Chess Championship this fall is to win the gold of the tournament, Andrei Filatov, the president of the Russian Chess Federation (RCF), told TASS on Monday.

"The tasks for our national teams have always been the same and they are to win the gold medals," Filatov said in an interview with TASS. "This is why we announced such rosters to achieve these tasks."

Earlier in the day, the RCF announced national rosters of the male and female teams for the upcoming European chess tournament. The men’s team’s roster lists Vladislav Artemyev, Dmitry Andreikin, Nikita Vityugov, Maxim Matlakov and Daniil Dubov.

The Russian women’s national team is comprised of Alexandra Goryachkina, Yekaterina Lagno, Valentina Gunina, Alina Kashlinskaya and Olga Girya.

"I would like to point out the men’s team, which is young, ambitious and talented," Filatov continued.

"We pin great hopes on our talented gold medalists — Grand Masters [Vladislav] Artemyev and [Dmitry] Andreikin, who will be playing at chess boards number one and two," the RCF president added.

The 2019 European Team Chess Championship is scheduled to be held between October 23 and November 3 in the Georgian resort city of Batumi and will be supervised by the European Chess Union (ECU).

According to the ECU’s official statement: "Each ECU member federation has the right to enter one team in Open and one team in Women’s competition. Teams in each of the competitions shall consist of four players and one reserve player."

"The European Team Chess Championship 2019 will be played in 9 rounds, Swiss system, with the time control of 90 minutes for 40 moves + 30 minutes for the rest of the game, with 30 seconds increment for every move played, starting from the move one," the statement adds.